Samsung aims to turn its next generation of Galaxy smartphones into AI companions

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Samsung is injecting another dose of artificial intelligence into its next lineup of Galaxy smartphones, escalating an effort to simplify people’s lives while deepening their dependence on a device that accompanies them almost everywhere.

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The three Galaxy S25 models unveiled Wednesday in San Jose, California, are the second generation to be designed for the AI age _ a craze that market-leading Apple joined last September with the release of the iPhone 16. Most of the hardware on the Galaxy S25 is mostly the same as last year’s model, except for a faster chip and a more powerful ultrawide lens on the camera.

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In its next phase, Samsung is positioning the Galaxy S25 as an “AI companion” capable of pulling more requests out of conversations, learning people’s routines, anticipating people’s needs and performing more technological tricks, such as being able to remove unwanted sounds from videos or identifying the name of a song upon request.

The AI on the new Galaxy phones has been designed to toggle from one app to another to fetch, summarize and manage information, entertainment and other content stored on the devices. In an attempt to make the technology even more indispensable, the AI on Galaxy S25 will be able to create customized digital dossiers on users’ behavior patterns and other unique characteristics that Samsung is calling a “personal data engine.”

“Everything you see here is the beginning of a new reality,” said TM Roh, the Samsung executive who oversees its smartphones. “Things that you thought you could never do, but now you can.”

As Apple has been doing with its AI features, Samsung is promising that its technology will shield users’ privacy while also peering into their lives. Samsung is providing the protection primarily by keeping all the knowledge accrued by its AI technology on the Galaxy devices — within a digital fortress the company nicknamed after Fort Knox, the Kentucky Army base seated next to the U.S. government’s depository for gold.

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After raising prices last year, Samsung is standing pat with the Galaxy S25 phones, with the standard model starting at $800, the Plus model at $1,000 and the Ultra model at $1,300. The phones are scheduled to be in stores starting Feb. 7.

Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson thinks the Galaxy S25 models “will offer a more intuitive user experience with more integrated vocal and cross-app experiences, but AI is not yet a key reason to buy a new smartphone.”

Samsung is doubling down on its AI bet after getting a sales bump from the past year’s emphasis on the technology. The South Korean company sold 32 million of its Galaxy S24 models from January through September last year, a 25% increase from the same time in the previous year, according to the research group Canalys.

But Samsung didn’t fare as well in the lower end of the smartphone market, where it was hurt by cheaper devices made by Chinese competitors. That’s one of the reasons Samsung’s total smartphone shipments fell by 1% last year, leaving it slightly behind Apple in the worldwide market, according to the research firm International Data Crop.

As was the case with last year’s models, the Galaxy S25 will draw heavily on AI technology made by Google, the maker of the free operating system Android that Samsung has long used for its smartphones.

Some of the new AI tricks, such as the ability to deploy Google’s “circle to search” technology to quickly identify the song title of music playing in a video, will debut on the Galaxy S25 before coming to other Android phones later this year. Google also has been planting more AI on its own phone, the Pixel, but that device still lags far behind the iPhone and Galaxy.

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